Art of extracting coal in mines



H. MACK. ART OF EXTRACTING COALVIN MINES- APPHCATION FILED OCT. 3, 191?.

Patented July 18, 1922 i irritant. My 5 HERMAN ACK, O'FMEIIAMIVI;GERMANY.

ART OF EXTRAC' EING COAL IN MINES.

recast Application'filed October 3; 1917. Serial No. 194,519.

(GRANTED UNDER THE .ERQVISIONS OF THE ACT OF MARGH 3, 1921, 41 S TAT. L,1313.)

To all whom it may concern Be 1t known that I. Haml n MACK, a citizen ofGermany residing at Borbergstrasse,

3, Hannn, NVestphaha, Germany, have in- I extracting coal by means of acompressed gaseous fluid such as air.

Hitherto, 1t has'been proposed tosoak a bed of coal with water and toburst the coal. oft" application oi my novel process.

bymeans of water under pressure. Al-

thoughthis process obviates the production of dust, however the processis not eiiicient considered generally, and has not been applied to anyextent. If, instead of water under pressure. a highly compressed gaseousfluid such'as air is introduced into the bore hole, a better effect isobtained as regards the separation of the coal, however. this method isaccompanied by a troublesome and dangerous development of very greatvoltunes of dust.

According to my present invention 1 provide for a successful anddangerless extraction of coal by employing a moistened compressedgaseous tluid such as air as a blasting agent. To obtain, for instance,com pressed air in a moistened state. the compressed air may be cooleddown whereby the steam or vapor contained in the compressed air iscondensed, the condensing resulting in a moistening of the compressedair prior to its introduction into the bore hole. To obtain the sameeffect steam or a liquid may be added to any compressed gaseous fluidwhile passing to the bore hole.

I have found that it especially useful to introduce a suitable liquid,as, for instance, water or oil, or the like, into the bore hole firstand thereafter the highly compressed gaseous fluid. As a result of thisprocedure the water penetrates into all the iissures and crevices of thecoal bed in a similarmanner as with the coal bed soaking method, andacts then as a tightening substance tor the compressed gaseous fluid.

Under such condition the eiiect oi the foreing and expanding compressedair within the coal bed isespecially great and any development oi dust1s suppressed in the beginning.

i0 render my invention more clear I have illustrated, in adiagrammatical manner 11nd,.

by way of example, some useful devices for the appllcation of my novelprocess in the accjon;

panying drawings, in whichFigure 1 shows a water introducing devicearranged within a compressed air admission pipe. Figure 2 illustratesthe manner of tightening the compressed air admission pipe within thebore hole previously chargedwith water. Figure 3 shows a movable devicefor the practical in order to saturate the compressed air with moistureon its way to the bore hole, the admission pipe for the compressed airmay be provided with a water introducing device acting in the manner ofan injector.

Such adevice is shown in Figure 1 by way of example. Compressed air ispassing through the pipea in the direction of the arrows. watercontainer 6 is coi'inectedto ;'the pipe a by meansv of the pipes c andd.

T he relation of. these parts is such that the liquid is drawn from thecontainer 3) by suction or injector action. "While the water issues fromthe end of the pipe 0 it is mi d with the compressed air. is delivered.totne flexible pipe Q enters the bore hole and penetrates into the bedof coal.

If it is desired to charge. the bore hole with water first, it isessential to provide for a good tightening of the compressed airadmission pipe within the bore hole. For that purpose I prefer to use adevice such as it have shown by way of example in Figure 2. The end ofthe compressed air admission pipe 6 is provided with a fixed in spite ofthe fact that the walls of the bore hole will never be smooth, andcrevices will always extend from the bore hole into the coal mass.

To enable one to extract coal in accord.- ance with this novel processat any place no matter whether there are any pipe lines, a movabledevice, such as is shown in Figure 3, may be employed. A compressed gascontainer Z and a closed water vessel m are mounted upon a movable car76 and are interconnected by means of a pipe a provided with ashutting-oft device 0. Another pipe p dips into the water contained inthe vessel mand connects with a flexible pipe 9 which leads to the borehole. hen the valve 0 is opened the compressed air enters the vessel onand presses the water contained tnerein through the pipes 1) and Q intothe sore hole. To allow the water suflicient time to be graduallydistributed into the various fissures, of the coal bed, it is advisableto open the valve 0 but partly at first. hen thereafter the valve 0 isfurther opened the compressed air enters into the bore hole and the coalbed and produces a blasting off of the coal. Instead of one water vesselaplurality of such may be used in conjunction with one or a plurality ofcompressed air containers mounted upon the ear is.

The above described process of extracting coal is in no way inferior inits effect to any blasting by means of explosives, but has the greatadvantage of being applicable with perfect safety in choke-damp-mines.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent ofthe United States is 1. A process of extracting coal, consisting inintroducing a moistened compressed gaseous fluid into a bore hole of thecoal bed.

2. A process of extracting coal, consisting in introducing a moistenedcompressed gas eous fluid of high tension into a bore hole of the coalbed.

3. A process of extractin coal consisting in charging a bore hole of diecoal bed with a compressed gaseous fluid and mixing the said compressedfluid with a moistening agent prior to the introduction of saidcompressed fluid into the bore hole.

4. A process of extracting coal consisting in charging a bore hole ofthe coal bed with a compressed gaseous fluid of high tension and mixingthe said compressed fluid with a moistening agent prior to theintroduction of said compressed fluid into the bore hole.

5. A process of extracting coal, consisting in charging a bore hole ofthe coal bed with a compressed gaseous fluid and previously chargingsaid compressed fluid with a gaseous moistening agent.

6; A process of extracting coal, consisting in charging a bore hole ofthe coal bed with a compressed gaseous fluid of high tension andpreviously charging said compressed fluid with water vapor.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed myname in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HERMAN MACK.

Witnesses F R. DRENER, M, VoLLoRcK.

